Crystal Dunn: ‘Black athletes can’t be put in a box and just be athletic’

Welcome to Moving the Goalposts, the Guardian’s new (and free) women’s football newsletter. Here’s an extract from this week’s edition. To receive the full version once a week, just pop your email in below:

Last week was a rather eventful one for Crystal Dunn. The 29-year-old Portland Thorns midfielder welcomed a baby son, Marcel Jean Soubrier, into life with husband Pierre Soubrier and, just a couple of days before, the US women’s national team announced that they had reached an agreement for equal pay with the men’s team. “I joked with everyone saying I’m happy we got this done before I became a mom,” she says.

Dunn has been in the game for a long time – she has played more than 100 games for her country – but the lead-up to becoming a mother has definitely helped change her perception of her profession and what she wants to achieve. “What people don’t really know about me is that I was severely burnt out before being pregnant. I still loved the game, showed up, wanted to be the best player I can be, but I felt like my reasoning was starting to dwindle,” she tells Moving the Goalposts.

Having had a break from games and training, she now feels better. “I’ve been a very ‘durable’ player my whole career, which means I’m available for every training and every game,” she says. “But unfortunately, that means that I don’t have time off. Being pregnant has given me the time off that I don’t think I was getting in my career.”

When we spoke Dunn was also energised by the official announcement of the equal pay deal, which happened on the same day. “My due date is tomorrow but I am the furthest thing from feeling like I’m going into labour soon,” she said and laughed. Her son was born less than 48 hours later.

Dunn has also used